We can't force Iraqis - or anyone else - to succeed, but we've done what no others have dared: We've given tens of millions of long-oppressed human beings a chance to live in freedom.
Much of this century will be shaped by what they make of that great chance.
The number of people who are desperate to see them fail is daunting, and for the most sordid and evil of reasons. These are not restricted to other authoritarians with a vested interest in their own power, but include the current international media and bureaucratic elites interested in theirs. But they have more friends than they know, or more properly, are being allowed to hear about.